Facing Economic Reality

Today’s European debate isn’t about governmental austerity, it’s about governmental reality. Ultimately, the argument is not whether governments can keep trying to stimulate their economies, but when their creditors will quit financing it. Somehow, Europe’s governments, teetering on tilting economies, have missed this point; we can only hope that Washington hasn’t.

We are witnessing a prolonged domino-effect among the world’s economically intrusive states. It began over two decades ago with the fall of the USSR and communism across Eastern Europe. Now the dominoes are falling into Western Europe — Greece, Portugal, Spain, and Italy, all are threatened with economic collapse.